In article , John Williamson
wrote:
High bit rate mp3 files are almost indistinguishable from PCM audio of
the same bit depth and sample rate, even by professionals on decent
playback systems.
Yes and no. :-)
e.g. Some years ago I got some 'AVRO' issued 256k mp3 files made using a
decent pro encoder. These were for one of the celebration events for the
Concergebauw or Haitink IIRC. In general, they sound quite good, albeit
that I have no source LPCM to compare with.
However in some quiet passages the result became quite 'ragged'. I finally
realised that the encoder judgement rule settings was treating a lot of the
low level detail as 'noise floor' simply because it wasn't fully taking
into account the overall low sound level.
So not all mp3 files are equal, even when at the same mp3 rate.
I use them happily for playback when not listening critically. For
critical work, then 24 bit uncompressed or losslessly compressed files
are what is needed, and as I tend to be editing as well, that rules out
native use of FLAC and similar codecs
As per earlier: Given the current cheapness and ubiquity of storage I long
ago decided there was no point in mp3. You can store quite a lot of flac
onto something like a = 4TB NAS, or even onto a couple of = 256 GB SD
card.
So to me nowdays, mp3 seems about as useful than making new 78 rpm discs
of shellac when you can choose alternatives.
Jim
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